Local Briefs

January 11, 2009|STAFF REPORTS

TRAFFIC & ACCIDENTSDriver hits a man walking his horses NEW PARIS -- A New Paris man was airlifted to the hospital Friday after he was reportedly struck by a vehicle while walking his horses. The accident occurred at 6:02 p.m. on County Road 48 just south of the New Paris city limits, according to a news release. Police said the man, 74-year-old Richard Ralph, was walking in the westbound lane with two of his horses when a westbound vehicle struck him. Ralph suffered unspecified injuries to his chest and left leg and was taken by helicopter to a Fort Wayne hospital, the release stated. TRAFFIC & ACCIDENTSDive team called to look for boater CULVER -- Rescue crews in Marshall County are looking for a boater who went missing Saturday. According to a Marshall County dispatcher, the Marshall County dive team and conservation officers from the Indiana Department of Conservation are at Lake Maxinkuckee participating in the search. Although little information was available, the dispatcher said the dive team was called after an empty boat was found on the lake. TRAFFIC & ACCIDENTSPolice find man lost on lake CULVER -- A 72-year-old man was rushed to a South Bend hospital Saturday, after emergency crews found him floating in the middle of Lake Maxinkuckee. Culver police say they were first notified by the man's wife about 2:45 p.m., after he failed to return from an "ice boat" outing on the lake. An ice boat is similar to a sail boat, only that it runs on skis on top of the ice. Police and firefighters began searching the lake, the state's second largest, with binoculars from shore but were unable to locate the boat for more than an hour. Firefighters than walked to the middle of the lake to find the boat empty and the man floating nearby, with the aid of a life jacket, in an open water area of the lake. The man, who is not being identified pending family notification, was unresponsive and crews used a basket to carry him to shore. He was then taken to a hospital in Plymouth before being transported to South Bend. Culver police say the man's ice boat remained on the lake, but that emergency crews will meet Sunday afternoon to remove it from the ice. TRAFFIC & ACCIDENTSIndiana girl dies in a skiing accident DOVER TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) -- Authorities said a 16-year-old Indiana girl died after hitting a tree just off a slope at Michigan's Treetops Resort. Michigan State Police told the Traverse City Record-Eagle that the accident happened Thursday night at the resort in Otsego County's Dover Township, located near Gaylord in the northern Lower Peninsula. The Times of Munster, Ind., and the Post-Tribune of Merrillville, Ind., reported Amanda Vignere of Cedar Lake was on a trip sponsored by First Baptist Church in Hammond, Ind., with other teens and adult chaperones. Authorities said she became separated from her group, was found injured by the ski patrol, and later died.